Leonora Armstrong

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Leonora Stirling Holsapple Armstrong (June 23, 1895 – October 17, 1980) was the first Bahá’í to live in Brazil. She went to Brazil in 1921 at age 25 as a Bahá’í pioneer and is remembered as the Spiritual Mother of the Bahá’ís of South America.

Early life
Leonora was born in Hudson, New York. Her father was Samuel Norris Holsapple and her mother was Grace Heathcote Stirling, who did civic work and taught school before dying soon after Leonora’s fifth birthday. The loss deeply affected Leonora and her sister Alethe. Leonora was a very bright student, read the Bible as a child, and was high school valedictorian. She earned a full four-year scholarship to Cornell University, where she studied Latin, Greek, Physics, Botany, Astronomy, and Chemistry and graduated with a BA. After college she taught Latin in high schools in Boston and did social work.

Bahá’í faith and calling
Leonora’s maternal grandmother became a Bahá’í around 1906 and taught Leonora and her sister about the Bahá’í Faith. The idea of pioneering to another country grew stronger after a 1919 Bahá’í message, Tablets of the Divine Plan, presented at a New York convention. ʻAbdu'l‑Bahá’s words and the encouragement of Martha Root inspired Leonora to serve in South America. She wrote to Martha and soon received support to go to Brazil.

Life and work in Brazil
Leonora arrived in Rio de Janeiro on February 1, 1921. She faced the challenge of moving alone to a distant country without knowing Portuguese, but she persisted. She found work in an office in Santos, São Paulo, and soon taught private English classes, which gave her the chance to share Bahá’í teachings. She spoke at national conferences and helped with the Esperanto movement as well. In 1925 she published her first Portuguese translation of Paris Talks by ʻAbdu'l‑Bahá. Leonora also worked as a social reformer, running an orphanage in Salvador from 1924 to 1927, and traveled to Belém and Manaus.

Leonora spread Bahá’í teachings widely. By 1927 she published articles in Belém and became the first Bahá’í to speak about the faith in Colombia, Venezuela, and several Caribbean and South American countries. She helped translate Bahá’í books into Spanish and even studied in Madrid in 1930 to improve her languages, as Bahá’í leader Shoghi Effendi sought translators for the cause. She later went on Bahá’í pilgrimage and returned to South America.

Leadership and family life
In 1940, Salvador formed the first Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís, and Leonora was one of its first members. She also helped establish LSAs in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In 1961 Brazil’s first National Spiritual Assembly was founded. In 1973 she was appointed Continental Counsellor, a high leadership role in the Bahá’í Faith.

Leonora married Harold V. Armstrong in 1941. They lived in many parts of Brazil and adopted or supported about twenty children over the years. She was a strong advocate for women’s rights and education, urging women to be leaders for peace.

Final years and legacy
Leonora spent her last years in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, and died on October 17, 1980, in Salvador, at age 85. Her farewell message to women at a Bahá’í conference in Brasília emphasized that women are the first educators of humanity and have a vital role in building a peaceful future. Her work helped lay the foundations of Bahá’í life in Brazil and across Latin America.